Impulsive
by HereComeTheDrums
Summary: "She'll die! She'll die if you take her out and you know it! The virtual reality is slowing her down enough to give her a decade, Baxter. Outside, she wouldn't make it six months." "Your personal attachments to oh-four-two are irrelevant, Morgan. You have six hours." Semi-AU. Written before Invasion, so I apologize for any canon I have to mess with.


_Running, she's running, she runs  
Quick, quick, call the doctor  
I don't think this is normal  
For my insides to be out on the carpet  
Don't know what I'm doing here  
Last thing that I remember  
I was all starry-eyed  
Dancing with the devil  
-Run Something Terrible by Remember Paris_

* * *

_**June 18, 2015**  
_

"A-Anna," it whimpers softly and slides down the wall, a wet trail of red streaking behind it. It pulls its hand away from its stomach, staring at the rapidly spreading stain on the standard white pajamas labeled _FP042. _It's never been hurt like this before, never this bad, _Anna always protects it. _"Anna!" it cries louder, ignoring the wave of pain the simple movement sends through its abdomen. _Idon'twanttodieAnnaplease...__  
_

The familiar ping of elevator doors send its gaze upward, hope gleaming in golden eyes. "Anna?" it tries again, desperate for its caregiver's comfort.

"Cassa-"

"FP042," it corrects weakly as the doctor rushes down to hall and kneels next to it. Anna shakes her head and stares helplessly at the gash in the red-tainted cotton.

"Please just let me use your name, Ca- FP. Just until I can fix you, okay? It'll keep me calm." She tears the bottom of its scrubs off and holds it against the deep slash. "Just put pressure on it, Cassie. It'll help stop the bleeding." It bites its lip and replaces Anna's hand with its own, trying to steady its shallow gasps.

"M' desi'nation's 042, Anna," it mumbles under its breath. "No' Cassie or Cassan'ra or whatever you keep calling me. You know tha'..."

Anna curses softly as she rummages through her bag. "For the hundredth time, Cassie, you're a _girl_, not a _thing_. _She_, not _it_." In truth, the absentminded scolding _does _calm her, strange as it may sound. The project - _the girl _- she chose out of all the others to provide care to - _to raise _- and keep safe is _dying_, but they've had this argument so many times it's begun to feel like a game. So Anna plays, if only for its sake.

"'m an it," it whispers. "'m nothing but their toy. I'm an overgrown lab rat, Anna. I don't-"

Anna gives it a hard glance, the one it's grown used to, the one that clearly says _shut up before I send you to a co-worker and give them permission to work you to the bone- just kidding I love you. _And it kills it inside, the last part burning in the warm brown eyes of its guardian, simply _radiating _truth.

"Anna..." it sighs softly and avoids her gaze. "'m sorry it had to be this way." Anna just scoffs.

"Oh, save the melodrama for when you actually have a reason for it. You're gonna be alright, Cass. Just let me find something to fix you with, okay?" And now she's slipped into the tone she uses with her niece, soft and simple and soothing, just trying to assure it that yes, it _will _be okay.

It really hates when she does that.

Anna tosses her bag aside and swears under her breath. "You have to run. Okay, Cass?"

"W-What?"

"Run."

"But you said I'm not allowed too! Anna-"

"Cassandra, if you ever listen to anything I say, you listen to me now. Run! Run, and don't you stop for anything!"

So it runs. It runs as fast as it can, faster and faster and _faster _and FASTER. The world begins to blur around it. It's a sign of death, surely. There's no way it can survive with its injuries, not running this fast, not with its heart pumping blood so quickly. It runs anyway.

Air flies across its face as it goes faster still. When did it get outside? It doesn't know. It only knows the pain in its chest and the ground beneath its feet. Anna said to run. It has to run...

Ribs tingle and knit themselves back together. Its pace stutters for a moment. It can _feel _them healing...

It wants to cry. It's okay. It's okay! It's alive and staying that way. It can go back and see Anna again. It goes to turn and slows down. It slows down. _It slows down._

It can't slow down. It tries and tries but it just _can't _and the world won't stop bluring and it really is crying now. The friction burns away at the soles of its cheap sneakers. _Everything's so SLOW..._

* * *

**The date, guys.**_  
_

**Remember the date.**

**(HJAOSIGNUSFI Invasion screwed me up so bad with this story ajajuifhopxusogyfkldnf)**

**This might end up semi-AU, because this season just...**

**ICAN'Tahsobhsiubcerfiphe**

**Okay, I'm done with the word vomit now. Um... Review, please? And if you actually like this, my Impulse page on Facebook usually has previews of my fics, so... An early version of next chapter might be in it, if you really want it. It's _Impulse (Young Justice)_.**

**Oh, and flames will be used to cook marshmallows! Leave them, if you must. ._.**


End file.
